124 THE TRACHELIA. 



quite at its lowest point. The eyes are small, and 

 situated on the sides of the head near the bases of the 

 antennse, and at a considerable distance from the 

 thorax. The abdomen and elytra are a good deal 

 wider than the prothorax, and the former projects a 

 long way beyond the elytra, especially in the females 

 when distended with eggs; the elytra are soft and 

 leathery, and instead of meeting on the back by a 

 straight suture, as is the case in most beetles, they 

 overlap each other a little at the base, and diverge 

 gradually towards the extremity. 



The insects of the tribe to which this curious beetle 

 belongs, although for the most part differing from it 

 greatly in appearance and habits, agree with it in 

 some of its most important characters. The most 

 striking of these, and that from which the group 

 receives its name, consists in the form of the head, 

 which in all these beetles is more or less enlarged 

 behind the eyes, and attached to the prothorax by a 

 distinct neck, so that the eyes are placed upon the 

 sides of the head at some distance from the margin of 

 the first segment of the body. From this character 

 these insects have been called TRACHELIA*. Most of 

 them also agree with the Meloe, and resemble the 

 beetles of the preceding tribe, in the soft texture of 

 their integuments ; but they are generally active in- 

 sects, adorned with bright colours, and well provided 

 with wings, upon which, like the Telephori, they flit 

 easily from flower to flower. Of the British species, one 

 of the most beautiful is the Pyrochroa rubens, a beetle 

 of rather more than half an inch in length, and of a 

 fine scarlet on its upper surface, which is found abun- 



* Gr. trachelos, a neck. 



